Saturday, July 7, 2012

GOING TO FLORIDA IN A 1949 PONTIAC

Miami, Florida

We piled into Dad's 1949 Pontiac

In 1949, seeking a warmer climate, Rosetta and Al moved from Chicago to Miami, Florida. It was a disaster from Day One! But, being the supportive person she was, Rosetta stayed cheerful through the entire ten month ordeal--at least on the surface. We kids never saw the stress she was under.

We got as far as Evansville, Indiana when Dad's car broke down and we were stuck in a hotel for two nights while it was being fixed. Was that an omen of what was to come? Who knows.

It took almost a week for us to drive to
Florida, and when Al pulled up in front of the address his sister Helen gave
us, I thought he made a mistake. The building looked so small I couldn’t
imagine how it could hold three apartments.

We quickly discovered what his sister hadn’t told us—her “apartments” were only
efficiency units. In just one room the living space was combined with a kitchen
space, if you can call it that. A sink with a drain board took up one wall.
Under the drain board was a small refrigerator and a few cabinets overhead. We
had a tiny bathroom, and as far as sleeping arrangements, closet doors on
another wall in this room hid a bed on hinges known as a Murphy bed. It was
built into the wall and at night you opened the doors and pulled down the bed.
Once the bed was down, you barely had any space between the couch and the bed.

These efficiency units were furnished with a few
sticks of furniture, and it just took one glance for us to realize they were
only meant to accommodate a single person or a perhaps couple in a pinch, but
certainly not four people. Al and I were
pretty upset that Helen hadn’t explained what kind of apartments she had, but
we couldn’t say anything to her. She meant well. With no children of her own,
she probably didn’t have a clue what it would be like to live in that one room
with two kids.

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Rosetta the Dancing Queen

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Now available in Kindle and Paperback

ABOUT ROSETTA

Born in 1909, Rosetta was the youngest of ten children in a zany immigrant family. She talks about growing up in the early 1900s when cars were still being developed, very few people had telephones or radios and getting an education beyond grammar school was a privilege for children in families of modest means.

Laughter was Rosetta's companion throughout her long llife--nearly 97 years, and she had the ability to inspire others to achieve beyond what they thought possible.

Her handwritten memoir was turned into "Can We Come In and Laugh, Too?", now available in paperback and digital editions. So grab a comfortable chair and share a bit of laughter with her.